Moments
by stanathankatic
Summary: A series of Castle oneshots; "Season Four AU: Pre Couple – Kate has been having nightmares and keeps showing up at the loft / calling castle over to her apartment in the middle of the night to comfort her."
1. One

A/N: So, I got the idea for this while listening to the song 'One' by Ed Sheeran and wrote it as soon as I got home... the lyrics don't really play a part in the story, but they did inspire it, so I thought I would include them.

* * *

><p><em>Tell me that you turned down the man<em>

_Who asked for your hand_

_'Cause you're waiting for me_

* * *

><p>He knows who it is before he opens the door- well, he doesn't <em>know<em>, but who else would be knocking on his door at 12 am on a Monday night. He opens it to see the woman he expected to see, smiling up at him. Not her usual smile though, this smile isn't the one that he has grown to love over the past couple of years, this one's sad, almost broken.

"Kate," he opens the door, slightly perplexed as to why she would be here at this hour, but gestures for her to come inside nonetheless. "What are you doing here?"

She doesn't answer him, instead just walks into him and wraps her arms around his torso, resting her head on his chest. He welcomes her almost immediately, wrapping his arms around her, still mildly confused as to why his partner, and the woman whom he loves, showed up at his door at midnight.

"Josh proposed." She answers belatedly, still holding onto him, no emotion in her response.

Rick stiffens then.

_Shit_.

"Congratulations." He somehow manages to get out. He hopes that his voice didn't betray him, that the word sounded at least a little bit genuine, although he doubts it.

"I said no." Kate states flatly.

"Why?" He asks, honestly confused. It comes out as a breath, which was definitely not the way that he had hoped for it to come out, but he guesses that it's too late for it to matter now.

"I-" She lets out a breath and separates her body from his, moving into his living room and sitting down on the armrest of his couch. He joins her, sitting on the chair that faces her. "I don't love him." She answers with a shrug, eyes focused on the intricate details of his area rug instead of him. "I never have, and honestly I don't know if I would have ever been able to. I thought what we had was working, both of us not caring that we were too busy to really see each other. I was just looking for a distraction, and I guess he was looking for something more."

"I'm sorry Kate."

"He broke up with me when I said no, not that I'm surprised." Kate let's out a sigh. "He told me that I was never really in the relationship; he thought that I was just using it as a place to hide from-" she stopped abruptly, presumably noticing that she was revealing too much.

"What did he think you were hiding from what, Kate?"

There's a pause before she answers.

"My feelings for you." She looks up then, finally making eye contact with him, and he's taken aback. No, she hasn't technically admitted to those feelings, but if Josh suspected that they were there, so much so that it lead to the demise of their relationship, maybe she did have feelings for him.

"Were you?" He asks, purposely keeping his tone even. He knew that if she said she didn't have feelings for him that it would break him, but he didn't want her to know that. He didn't want her decision to be affected by how he felt; he wanted for her to be fully honest with him.

She doesn't break eye contact with him, but she doesn't answer him immediately either. She sits there, staring at him, an emotion written across her face that he can't quite place. She stays that way for what to him feels like forever, but in reality is probably only a few moments, before she stands.

"Yes." Kate answer's, eyes still connected to his, as she walks towards him.

"Yes?" He asked, slightly awed by her confession.

"Yes." She replies confidently. She's standing in front of him now, a hopeful smile on her face.

He remains still for a few moments, trying to process what she just admitted, before he asks her what this means for them.

"Well," she says as she sits down, her voice cautious, different than what he's heard from her before. "I love you, and if you feel the same way, or think that you could, I'd really like to-"

He doesn't let her finish; as soon as his mind processes that the words 'I love you' came out of her mouth, his lips are on hers.

"I love you too, Kate," He murmurs against her mouth after they pull apart. "So much."

* * *

><p>AN: I've been working on a few seperate stories recently and decided instead of posting them individually, I would just post them here. Leave any prompts you would like you see filled!

PS. I have not abandoned Begin Again, it's just a pretty heavy topic and recently I've been dealing with some things making it hard to write that kind of subject matter. I have about 700 words of the next chapter, so I should finish and update that soon, but I don't want to make promises as of when. You guys are awesome, thank you x


	2. You're My Best Friend

Season Four AU: Pre Couple – Kate has been having nightmares and keeps showing up at the loft / calling castle over to her apartment in the middle of the night to comfort her.

**a/n: strayed a little bit from the prompt, sorry about that. I imagine this taking place early season four. Also (loosely) took inspiration from the following lyrics as well:**

"_One night he wakes, strange look on his face_

_Pauses, then says, you're my best friend_

_And you knew what it was, he is in love"_

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><p>"Kate," Rick answers into the phone, his voice rough with sleep. "It's 2 in the morning – are you ok?"<p>

He hears her breathing, but she doesn't answer.

"Kate?" He asks, his concern beginning to grow.

"Yeah, you know what, I'm sorry it's late I'll talk to you-"

"Kate, no, what's wrong?"

"I just- I had a bad dream, that's all." He can tell she's trying not to cry. "It's fine, I just needed to hear your voice, sorry."

"I'm coming over."

"Castle-"

And then the line goes dead.

* * *

><p>Fifteen minutes later and Kate is opening the door to her partner.<p>

"Castle, I'm fine." She mumbles to Rick as he pulls her into a hug.

"Kate, your eyes are puffy and the remnants of your makeup is smeared, I can tell you've been crying. Now why don't we sit down and talk about this dream of yours?"

She sighs but doesn't ask him to leave, which he takes as a good sign, so he releases her from the hug and takes her hand in his, leading her over to the couch before sitting down and pulling her into him. He sits there and watches her, his eyes full of patience as he waits for her to begin talking.

"I-" She takes a breath. "Instead of me being shot at Montgomery's funeral it was you." The tears are back, flowing heavy down her cheeks when he pulls her in even closer, tight enough that she thinks she may stop breathing. He runs his hands through her hair as she sobs, clutching her to him as if he's the one who needs her, not the other way around. He presses kisses to her scalp and whispers sweet nothings to her until her breathing evens out and she's calmed down.

"I was so scared, Castle." She murmurs, so quietly it's almost in audible. She's quiet for a moment before continuing. "I'm so sorry."

He pulls away enough to look at her. "Hey, shh," He whispers, brushing a stray hair away from her face. "What are you sorry for?"

She looks down at her lap as she answers. "For leaving you; you had no idea how I was doing, you didn't even know if I was alive. I told you I would call, but I- I just couldn't. I was too scared, but Castle, I can't even imagine what you went through over the summer."

"Kate, hey, it's okay." It wasn't, but he knew telling her that right now would do nothing but make her more upset.

"No," Her voice is raised, she's looking at him now. "It's not okay, why won't you just admit that?" She stares at him, the exasperation clearly etched onto her face.

"Okay, you're right, it's not okay." He replies solemnly. "But there's nothing we can do about that now, so there's no point lingering on the pain, is there?"

Kate stares at him for a moment, then shakes her head and almost immediately she's back hugging him.

"Thank you," She whispers, gripping him even tighter. "For everything."

Rick manages to loosen her hold on him briefly, allowing him to steal a glance at the clock.

"Hey, it's almost 3, why don't we get you to bed."

She gives him a weary smile, nodding in agreement.

"Are you staying?" Kate asks, turning to face him, as she leads him blindly through her apartment and into her bedroom.

"I don't know, I should probably get going."

"Oh, yeah, okay." She stops and gives him a small smile and tries to hid the disappointment in her response, but really, all she wants right now is for him to stay with her; to hold her when the nightmares come, whisper calming words into ears and press kisses to her scalp until she's okay.

He notices her disappointment though, the same way he notices everything about her, so he questions her. "Do you want me to stay?"

"If you have to go, then go." She tries to remain nonchalant about it, but right now she doesn't really give a damn if she's coming across as needy. He's her partner, the person she trusts, cares about, and loves more than anyone. She needs him right now. "But if you can stay, please do."

She's already turned back around, continuing on the path towards her room, so she misses the grin that's gracing Rick's face right now, which he is grateful for because if she were to see how happy he was about that statement, he knows that he would never live it down.

—

She stays asleep, for the most part, until around 5:30 when she's awoken by Castle rubbing her back and whispering something in her ear that she can't quite comprehend, so she rolls over and stares at him, eyebrow raised.

"Oh, good, you're up."

"I am now," She grumbles. "Want to tell me why?"

"You were having a nightmare."

"Oh,"_ How sweet of him_ "Thanks."

"Did you want to talk about it?"

"Honestly, most of the time I don't remember them. I didn't even realize I was having a nightmare when you woke me up."

"That's good."

"Yeah, I guess it is," She smiles at him. "Can we go back to bed now?"

"Oh, yeah, sorry." Rick lies back down and rolls onto his side, opening his arms out to her. "Come here."

She shifts towards him, positioning herself so that her back is flush against his chest. He wraps his arms around her torso, pulling her in as close as her can, resting his nose in the nape of her neck, breathing her in. Why couldn't she just tell him how she felt about him so he could stay with her like this every night? _You know why Kate. _Yeah, she does. She knows that she needs to get better first, that she needs to be able to tear down that wall before she can start a relationship that she wants, well, needs, to be successful. _You know what? I'm done waiting._

"Stop thinking so loudly." He murmurs against her skin, pulling her out of her thoughts.

"Sorry." She mumbles.

"What were you thinking about?"

She turns in his arms so she can face him, leaving his face only inches from her own. She smiles at him, then leans in and brushes her lips against his, before pulling back and whispering her response. "You're my best friend."

He smiles a smile so bright that she thinks he could light up a city with it, before pulling her back in, this time deepening the kiss, filling it with all of his love for her.

"You, Katherine Beckett, are my best friend as well." He whispers to her between kisses.

—

**A/N:** **This doesn't mention past occasions of him helping her through her nightmares, so I was thinking that this could be the start to a series of one shots based around that idea… let me know what you think? **


End file.
